Rifa J. El- Khozondar

Prof. Dr. Rifa Jarallah El-khozondar is a full professor at physics department in Al-Aqsa Univesity. She has earned her B.SC. in Physics from Bir-Zeit University at Palstine in 1986. She has received her M.Sc. in Physics in 1996 and her Ph.D. in Computational material science in 2002 from New Mexico State university in the USA. The focus of her research work is on developing Monte Carlo Potts model to investigate microstructural evolution of polycrystalline materials. She has developed the code to simulate the degeneration of lamellar structures formed upon eutectoid transformations. In addition, she adjusted the model to study microstructural evolution in three-phase polycrystalline materials. Moreover, she modified the model to simulate grain size distribution in two-phase polycrystalline materials. She also developed the model to simulate grain growth in liquid-phase sintered materials. Furthermore, she has done an imporotant research work on investigating the dependence of PV cell maximum power output (MPP) on different parameters using MATLAB simulation. She also has a continuing interest in metamaterials and its applications to design new structures (e.g. isolators, sensors, liquid crystal and photonic crystal). Additionally, she studied the polarization rotation in optical fibers where the frame of reference in which polarization rotation in twisted optical fibers is described to be compatabile with the modeling of fiber sensor applications. Further, she investigated the nonlinear transmission lines. Her research work constitutes a good balance between applied and fundamental research. She has attended several national and international conferencds. She has been awarded several scholarships including the regular associate award of ICTP, the DAAD short research visit. She serves as a member of national and international journals.

Research interests

The focus of her research work is on developing Monte Carlo Potts model to investigate microstructural evolution of polycrystalline materials. The Monte Carlo Potts model is shown to be successful in simulating the degeneration of lamellar structures formed upon eutectoid phase transformations. The Monte Carlo Potts model is developed to study microstructural evolution in three-phase polycrystalline materials. The Monte Carlo Potts model is developed to simulate grain growth in liquid phase sintered materials. The geometric metrics such as grain size distribution is considered; in addition, the topological metrics such as number of grain sides is considered. The model is developed to simulate grain size distributions in two-phase polycrystalline materials. Further, the Monte Carlo Potts model is adapted to simulate Ostwald ripening controlled by long-range diffusion in two- phase polycrystalline materials. The Monte Carlo Potts model is further developed to investigate the topological distribution.